


In Sickness

by ShadowsOffense



Category: Legend of the Seeker
Genre: Angst, Character Death, F/F, Gen, HIV/AIDS, Implied Femslash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-02
Updated: 2013-12-02
Packaged: 2018-01-03 07:21:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 652
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1067658
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShadowsOffense/pseuds/ShadowsOffense
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An alternate look at “Hunger,” episode 2x12.  She spends everyday dying.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In Sickness

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written for World Aids Day 2010 and dedicated to everyone whose lives have been touched by the disease.

“This isn’t what I intended when I took the Keeper’s deal,” Cara licked her desiccated lips, hating the coarseness in her voice. The words stirred a memory… she had said that before, when they had failed to get to the spring before the Keeper destroyed it…

 

_…This isn’t what I intended when I took the Keeper’s deal, I came back to protect **you**.” She glared at them defiantly._

_“Well that’s too bad!” Kahlan glared back. “There has to be some more shadow water somewhere. Zedd’s father had a supply, another wizard might have one as well!”_

_“We can’t split up on the off chance; Richard can’t loose both of us. I’m not important enough to risk it.”_

_“You are to us.” Richard and Kahlan protested at the same time. Even Zedd nodded his agreement. His brother’s blood was only just starting to dry and flake off of her leathers._

_“You can consider it an order if you like, but you and Kahlan are going to Aydindril to check with the wizards there while Zedd and I continue after the Stone of Tears,” Richard added in her stunned silence._

 

Cara licked her lips again and looked up into Kahlan’s eyes, the blue somehow deeper and purer for the wetness there. Kahlan never looked lovelier than when she was crying.

“It wasn’t what I intended, but I’m glad I had this time with you,” Cara raised a hand to touch the confessor’s cheek, grateful that the gloves covered her deteriorated skin. 

“Don’t say that,” Kahlan pleaded desperately. Cara knew the only reason the confessor wasn’t forcing a dagger into her hands was the promise Cara had made Kahlan give once she had learned how far the confessor was truly willing to go to save her.

 

_After the fight, with pain and death in her hands, Cara felt almost alive. Almost like nothing was wrong. She was giddy with the sensation._

_Turning, she looked to Kahlan. Four bandits were kneeling around her, the confessor unsteady with weariness of using so much magic._

_Concern pulled down the edges of her mouth. “It’s unlike you to confessor so many, was something wrong with your daggers?”_

_“No,” Kahlan panted, accepting the support Cara moved to give her. “You may stand,” she told her confessed. Nearly as one they rose. “You will travel with us, helping as needed. If we are attacked, you are to try and take as many alive as possible.”_

_“Kahlan,” Cara stared at the confessor. “You can’t mean for me to…”_

_“It’s still a week’s journey to Aydindril. I don’t expect to be attacked everyday and you said yourself the clock resets each time you kill,” Kahlan’s face was smooth and her voice firm. It was the only solution, Cara knew, but she looked at Kahlan like she had never seen the confessor before._

 

“Kahlan, listen,” Cara tightened her grip. “You’ve spent the last month keeping me alive a day at a time. I didn’t think I would make it this long.” She tried a smile. “This is a good death, I would have hated to lived into uselessness.”

Kahlan gave a broken laugh that was more of a sob than anything else. “Even old and bedridden I doubt you’d be useless.”

Cara felt unexpectedly touched at the sentiment. She could feel her strength fading. “Get to Richard, if there is a way to get him and Zedd out of that valley, you’ll find it.”

“I know,” Kahlan’s grip tightened around her. “Cara.”

“It’s ok.” Pain was spreading through her now, but she ignored it. The Keeper’s magic was not so different from an agiel. “Kahlan, your eyes?” She tried to ask about the darkness she saw swirling there. Distantly she heard an answering scream

When the con'dar left her and Kahlan came to herself again, face streaked with tears, there was a pale blue stone sitting in the pile of Cara's leathers and ash.


End file.
